Most everyone has experienced a black monitor at some time or another right? I know I have on at least more than one occasion. But not anymore. I took steps to ensure I will never have a black monitor again, and you can too. Just keep reading to find out what I did.
The two most common reasons why your monitor is black is the power is off or else the monitor is not receiving a signal through the video cable. The power issue is fixed by checking the power LED light on your monitor. Most monitors have an LED power indicator on the front lower right panel. The LED light should be on. If not, plug in the monitor to a known-good wall outlet. The second issue requires you to check if the video cable is plugged into your computer. Sometimes the video cable comes loose and your monitor does not receive a signal. Hold the end of the video cable and firmly press to connect. Check both ends of the video cable.
Black monitor due to no power
Believe it or not, this a really common problem. But the good news is it’s an easy fix. Most monitors have an LED power-on indicator in the lower right-hand corner of the monitor located on the monitor bevel. Check to see if the light is on. If not, check to make sure your monitor is plugged in a good known wall outlet.
Some monitors may be a little different. For example, a Samsung monitor does not have an LED power-on indicator but has an LED power off indicator. Yes, you guessed it. It’s completely backward from what I just described. A Samsung computer monitor will tell you the monitor is off by turning on a small blue light when the monitor is off. This lets you know the power is off, and the monitor is plugged in. It’s actually a good design because on other monitors, if you are looking at your monitor and you see the screen is on, why do you need an LED indicator light telling you the same information? You already know the monitor has power and is turned on. Samsung is just one monitor that I can recall immediately that does there may be other monitors that also do the same thing.
HP monitors will give you both an LED indicator light when the monitor is turned on and when it’s turned off. When the HP Elite display monitor is turned on there is an LED power symbol that is on. The color of the symbol is white. When the monitor is turned off, the power symbol turns yellow in color.
The bottom line is all monitors are a little different, but almost all have some way to indicate if the monitor is plugged into a good power source. So checking the power cord is the easiest and quickest thing to check if your monitor is black.
My monitor is black monitor due to the video cable is not connected
Loose video cables happen often but do not happen as often nowadays due to the new DisplayPort cable connection. The new DisplayPort cable clicks in place with a built-in lock. The cable is much easier to lock in place due to the new click lock. To lock in place, press firmly until you hear the cable click in place. To unlock, press the top of the DisplayPort cable end, the cable will release. The older DVI cable and even older VGI cables require a small screwdriver to lock the cable in place. Almost no one when to the trouble of screwing in both screws to hold the cable in place. And unfortunately as a result the cable often worked loose and the result was a black computer screen. HDMI cables can come loose due to they have no locking mechanism at all. You should grab the end of the HDMI cable firmly and press the cable into the connection until it stops. Then double-check to have sure the end of the cable is firmly in place. My preference would be to use a DisplayPort cable for the built-in locking mechanism. The locking mechanism prevents the cable from becoming loose and thereby you ending up with a black monitor. In terms of quality, there is no difference in picture quality between HDMI and Displayport cables. Checking you monitor video cables is listed second because it’s the second easiest thing to check.
It sounds rather silly, to check the video cable, but it has happened to me. I have fallen victim to this issue. My black monitor was due to I was using the old DVI connection to my monitor, and I was lazy and did not screw the tiny connector screws to secure the cable to the back of my monitor. And naturally, after a while of adjusting the viewing angle, the DVI cable came loose. Luckily for me, I remembered I did not tighten the screws and immediately knew to check the DVI cable. As soon as I tightened the cable. My black monitor problem was resolved.
Black monitor problems parting thoughts
Well, it’s definitely not rocket science to check to see if your monitor has power. And it does not take a brain surgeon to check to see if the monitor video cable has a good connection. All sounds rather simple, but in the end, I bet many folks have run across this problem, including me. Nothing to be ashamed of. It happens. One good idea is to replace your monitor video cable with a DisplayPort cable if you can. This way, you will not have to worry about loose video cables again. I have done this and, now all my monitor cables are securely locked in place, and as a result, I have not experienced a black monitor in years! I would be interested if you have had this problem and what you did to fix it. I would also be interested if you had other problems that caused a black monitor that was not related to power or video cables. Please comment below.
References
Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Comments
Post a Comment